Trump hits highs, lows in another strange week
It’s been another weird week for our presidential reality show.
It started with a tour de force speech to Congress that was long on style and short on substance. It ended with a fresh set of “alternative facts,” this time supplied by the U.S. attorney general.
Let’s start with the speech. In tone, at least, it was the one President Trump should have given at his inauguration. Not surprisingly, his supporters embraced it enthusiastically. Given the state of media punditry, it was probably equally unsurprising that TV commentators were just as enthusiastic. It seems that speaking for an hour without shouting, using “we” instead of “I” and managing to avoid insulting someone makes one presidential.
The speech was devoid of any specificity. He’s going to do his best to get people back to work by way of an infrastructure funding. Where’s the money going to come from? He’s going to replace Obamacare. With what?
Of course, there’s no need for him to get into that sort of detail in the minds of most Americans. Just get the work going, and as things unfold, someone at some time in the future will pay for it.
And of course, Trump offered up no great approaches to any of the nation’s challenges. No Great Society, no race to the moon.
But he did manage to button his jacket. I guess that’s something.
The White House’s euphoria over the speech was short-lived, ending right about the time the Washington Post reported that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had met with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. during the campaign, even though he told senators at his confirmation hearings that he hadn’t met with any Russian officials.
That may not rise to the legal level of perjury, but it certainly qualifies as a dumb thing to say.
Everyone knows that a prominent senator, which Sessions was at the time, has regular dealings with foreign dignitaries. All he had to say under oath was, “I had no formal meetings, but I’ve had interactions in social settings.”
And if asked what was said, Sessions should have simply replied: “None of your business.”
Instead, he’s opened the door for the outside independent investigation of Russian interference in the campaign that Trump has been trying to avoid.
There’s a quiet war brewing up on Potrero Hill.
For decades, the hill has been a bastion of progressive politics. It’s the neighborhood that former Mayor Art Agnos, state Democratic Party Chairman John Burton and a host of the old left guard have called home for decades.
Lately, however, some new residents are moving in, and I’m not talking about techies who drop $2 million for a little home on the hill. I’m talking about the folks who bring their homes with them and set them up on the sidewalks.
The tents that been found mainly on the flatlands of the Mission District and along Division Street are moving up the hill, and are now lining Utah Street.
Some businesses are hiring private security to keep the campers at bay. And I hear talk that the city may roll in to remove the tents.
Will the progressives fight for the tent dwellers’ right to stay? Or will they look the other way?
It is going to be a real test of hill residents’ treasured self-image of tolerance, compassion and inclusiveness, when the diversity they’ve urged on the rest of the city sets up on their block.
Movie time: “Get Out.” The theater was half full, and so was the movie.
This alleged comedyhorror film is mostly a horror story about a white girl bringing her black boyfriend home to her parents for the weekend. “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” meets “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” It’s 90-plus minutes of very little entertainment and quite a bit of blood.
“Collide.” You want real entertainment? You want real auto chase scenes? You want great dialogue with people living on the streets, violating the law left and right? You want Anthony Hopkins? You get it all in this black-and-white film, made on a shoestring. It is really worth your time and whatever you pay.
I was a bit upset about the initial treatment that presenters Faye Dunaway, age 76, and Warren Beatty, age 79, received after the big Oscar mistake. The out-of-the-gate reaction among the people I was with was that the pair of “aging actors” were experiencing a shared senior moment.
Talk about age discrimination. The flub turned out to be the fault of some youngster working with Price water house Coopers who was too busy taking selfies backstage to pay attention to his job.
Age is only a number. You can be functional at 83 and dysfunctional at 38. Just ask me.
I got a great card the other day. It read, “Think ahead — impeach Pence.”